Neuro-fuzzy control of sit-to-stand motion using head position tracking

Abstract

Based on the clinical evidence that head position measured by the multisensory system contributes to motion control, this study suggests a biomechanical human-central nervous system modeling and control framework for sit-to-stand motion synthesis. Motivated by the evidence for a task-oriented encoding of motion by the central nervous system, we propose a framework to synthesize and control sit-to-stand motion using only head position trajectory in the high-level-task-control environment. First, we design a generalized analytical framework comprising a human biomechanical model and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system to emulate central nervous system. We introduce task-space training algorithm for adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system training. The adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system controller is optimized in the number of membership functions and training cycles to avoid over-fitting. Next, we develop custom human models based on anthropometric data of real subjects. Using the weighting coefficient method, we estimate body segment parameter. The subject-specific body segment parameter values are used (1) to scale human model for real subjects and (2) in task-space training to train custom adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system controllers. To validate our modeling and control scheme, we perform extensive motion capture experiments of sit-to-stand transfer by real subjects. We compare the synthesized and experimental motions using kinematic analyses. Our analytical modeling-control scheme proves to be scalable to real subjects’ body segment parameter and the task-space training algorithm provides a means to customize adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system efficiently. The customized adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system gives 68%–98% improvement over general adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. This study has a broader scope in the fields of rehabilitation, humanoid robotics, and virtual characters’ motion planning based on high-level-task-control scheme.